Every man’s home is his castle: Traditional proverb dating back to Roman times.
Every man’s home is his castle: Traditional proverb dating back to Roman times.
I have an ambivalent relationship with Australian suburbia. I grew up in a 1950s white weatherboard house in the western suburbs of Melbourne. My house had a great big backyard that I spent most of my time in, climbing trees or playing with my much loved Australian terrier.
I left suburbia however for the inner city as soon as I became an adult. I also lived in outside of Australia for almost ten years of my life so I view what it is to be Australian and what is uniquely Australian from a distance. When I return to suburban Australia, I feel familiarity but I also feel estrangement. I feel overwhelmed by the space and alienated by it.
Over the years I’ve come to view myself as an expressionist photographer. I’m as much influenced by Munch and Van Gogh, as I am by numerous historical and contemporary photographers. These shots reflect how I perceive suburbia. I am literally on the outside looking in on these metaphorical castles. There is often a fence blocking my view, but it may as well be a moat. There is even a hint of Munch’s paranoia. As I point my camera, I feel the windows staring back at me.
These shots could be anywhere in any suburb of any big city or small regional town in Australia.
BIOGRAPHY
Born in Melbourne, Australia, after graduating from Frankfurt International School in Germany, I studied Graphic Design at Maidstone College of Art in the UK, where I first began taking photographs seriously. After doing a post-graduate in Graphic Design at the Royal College of Art in London I eventually returned to Australia and spent most of the 1980s working as an art director in advertising. I then drifted off to pursue various other creative endeavours including writing and directing a short Australian Film Commission funded film, I decided the spontaneity of photography and designing within the context of a photographic frame more suited to my temperament. Studying Graphic Design at Art College taught me lateral and conceptual thinking, a Diploma of Photography from Sydney TAFE Ultimo taught me the photographic technique I needed to execute my concepts successfully. I feel my approach to photography is creative rather than technical and I believe as a photographer I never stop learning.
Every man’s home is his castle: Traditional proverb dating back to Roman times.
I have an ambivalent relationship with Australian suburbia. I grew up in a 1950s white weatherboard house in the western suburbs of Melbourne. My house had a great big backyard that I spent most of my time in, climbing trees or playing with my much loved Australian terrier.
I left suburbia however for the inner city as soon as I became an adult. I also lived in outside of Australia for almost ten years of my life so I view what it is to be Australian and what is uniquely Australian from a distance. When I return to suburban Australia, I feel familiarity but I also feel estrangement. I feel overwhelmed by the space and alienated by it.
Over the years I’ve come to view myself as an expressionist photographer. I’m as much influenced by Munch and Van Gogh, as I am by numerous historical and contemporary photographers. These shots reflect how I perceive suburbia. I am literally on the outside looking in on these metaphorical castles. There is often a fence blocking my view, but it may as well be a moat. There is even a hint of Munch’s paranoia. As I point my camera, I feel the windows staring back at me.
These shots could be anywhere in any suburb of any big city or small regional town in Australia.
BIOGRAPHY
Born in Melbourne, Australia, after graduating from Frankfurt International School in Germany, I studied Graphic Design at Maidstone College of Art in the UK, where I first began taking photographs seriously. After doing a post-graduate in Graphic Design at the Royal College of Art in London I eventually returned to Australia and spent most of the 1980s working as an art director in advertising. I then drifted off to pursue various other creative endeavours including writing and directing a short Australian Film Commission funded film, I decided the spontaneity of photography and designing within the context of a photographic frame more suited to my temperament. Studying Graphic Design at Art College taught me lateral and conceptual thinking, a Diploma of Photography from Sydney TAFE Ultimo taught me the photographic technique I needed to execute my concepts successfully. I feel my approach to photography is creative rather than technical and I believe as a photographer I never stop learning.
